In Egyptian mythology, Hapi is the god associated with the Nile flood and fertility.
Hapi personified the annual inundation of the Nile rather than the river as a whole. Each year, floodwaters spread dark, nutrient-rich silt across Egypt’s fields, making agriculture possible in a landscape surrounded by desert. Because the flood sustained crops, Hapi became a powerful symbol of abundance, nourishment, and fertility.
Artists commonly portrayed Hapi as a male figure with a large belly and pendulous breasts. These unusual features represented the plentiful food and life-giving water brought by the inundation. He might wear papyrus plants for Lower Egypt or lotus plants for Upper Egypt, and later images sometimes show paired figures binding the symbols of the two lands together.
Hapi was associated with the First Cataract and Elephantine, near the traditional ancient source of the Nile. He was not the same as Sobek, the crocodile god, or Khnum, the creator deity linked to Elephantine. Hapi specifically represented the flood event and its agricultural benefits.